Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization

305 Pages·2018·25.779 MB·English

by  Max Haiven

Art after Money, Money after Art

Art after Money,
Money after Art
Creative Strategies
Against Financialization
Max Haiven
Between the Lines
TORONTO
First published 2018 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Max Haiven 2018
The right of Max Haiven to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3825 5 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3824 8 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0318 4 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0320 7 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0319 1 EPUB eBook
Published in Canada 2018 by Between the Lines
401 Richmond Street West, Studio 281, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8
www.btlbooks.com
Cataloguing in Publication information available from Library and Archives
Canada
ISBN 978 1 77113 398 2 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 77113 400 2 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 77113 399 9 EPUB eBook
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed
and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are
expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Printed in Europe
All images in this book remain the copyright of the artist unless otherwise stated.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their
permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any
errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any
corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
Contents
Figures vii
Dedication xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
Financialization and the imagination 6
The best of enemies, the worst of friends 11
Why bother? Activist questions 18
Caveats toward abolition 22
Overview 25
1. 3.5 artistic strategies to envision money’s mediation 29
Crises of representation 31
Money, abstraction and transformation 37
The art of money, the financialization of art, and a half-strategy 39
Strategy 1: Revelation 43
Strategy 2: Reflexivity 46
On mediation 50
Strategy 3: Rendering labor visible 55
2. 6 artists x 2 crises x 3 orders of reproduction 64
Three theories of reproduction 67
Three artists, c.1973 74
Dawning financialization 88
Three artists after financialization 97
Conclusion 107
3. 0 participation: Benign pessimism, tactical parasitics
and the encrypted common 111
You can’t give it away like you used to 112
Social practices 117
Cruel optimism 123
Benign pessimism 127
Tactical parasitics 134
The encrypted common 142
Conclusion 153
vi art after money, money after art
4. ∞ encryption: Art’s crypt, securitization in numbers,
derivative socialities 154
The cryptic market 157
A financialized society of control 160
Freeport empire 163
Palaces of encrypted culture 169
A crypt within a crypt 172
Popular Unrest 186
Derivative sociality 189
Debtfair 197
Epilogue: Beyond crypto 207
Conclusion: Toward abolitionist horizons 213
An abolitionist approach 213
Another reproduction 218
Beyond fascism 221
Art after money, money after art 224
Notes 228
Subject index 269
Name index 275
Figures
1. Michael Marcovici, Rat Traders, 2011. Promotional image 5
2. Robert Wechsler, The Caryatid, 2014. Installation view 10
3. Robert Wechsler, The Caryatid, 2014. Detail 10
4. Art Reserve Bank coin: “Shadow Economics” designed by
Gabriel Lester 13
5. Art Reserve Bank installation view, Amsterdam 14
6. SUPERFLEX, Investment Bank Flowerpots/Deutsche
Bank Cannabis Sativa, 2010 16
7. Newspaper advertisement related to the K-Foundation’s
burning of £1,000,000, August 1994 24
8. Undated photograph of Boggs with a large edition work
and cat, 2018 29
9. Femke Herregraven, Geographies of Avoidance, 2011 32
10. John Baldessari, Money (with Space Between), 1991 35
11. Blu, Untitled (El Tiburón), 2009 44
12. William Powhida, The Game, 2010 46
13. Cesare Pietroiusti. Image from an untitled 2007 performance
in Brussels, in which the artist treated money with sulfuric acid 56
14. Cesare Pietroiusti, Untitled (Three thousand US dollars to take
away), 2008. Detail from installation and performance 57
15. Cesare Pietroiusti and Paul Griffiths, Eating Money: An Auction,
2005–7. Performance at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, UK 57
16. Cesar Pietroiusti, Money watching, 2007. Performance and
social action at a Birmingham shop-front 58
17. Máximo González, Numismagia, 2011. Side view 59
18. Máximo González, Numismagia, 2011. Detail 60
19. Máximo González, Big magma CCCLXX-I, 2011. Installation
view 60
20. Máximo González, Basura sin paisaje (Landfill without
landscape), 2012. Detail 61
21. Máximo González, La basura del mundo (The world’s garbage),
2012. Detail 62
22. IAIN BAXTER&, Monopoly with Real Money (1973/2009),
still of performance 68
23. Cassie Thornton, Physical Audit, 2012. Performance still 70
24. Yoan Capote, Rate (fucking money), 2015 (detail) 72
viii art after money, money after art
25. George Washington “Bo” Hughes, The “Dicer” Hobo Nickel,
1939 76
26. Hans Haacke, MOMA-Poll, 1970 79
27. Lee Lozano, Untitled (Party/Paranoia, Painting, Real Money),
1969 84
28. Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway, Black Shoals Stock Market
Planetarium, 2004. Installation view 90
29. Blake Fall-Conroy, Minimum Wage Machine, 2008–10 and
2012 93
30. Constantina Zavitsanos, Sweepstakes, 2015. Installation view 95
31. Constantina Zavitsanos, 1737/1921/2010 (It was what I wanted
now), 2015. Installation view 96
32. geheimagentur, Schwarzbank, 2012 98
33. Zachary Gough, Bourdieux, 2014 101
34. Nuria Güell and Levi Orta, Arte Político Degenerado, 2014.
Stock certificate 105
35. Fran Ilich, Spacebank, 2005–18 109
36. A panel from Epistolier and M. Trublin’s 1977 comic
The Yippies at the Exchange 113
37. Global Ultra Luxury Faction intervention at the Guggenheim
Museum, New York, March 29, 2014 115
38. Mel Chin and collaborators, Fundred Project, 2006–present 119
39. Darren Cullen, Pocket Money Loans, 2013–present. Installation
view at the 2016 Glastonbury Festival 124
40. SUPERFLEX, Today we do not use the word “Recession,” 2015 128
41. Axel Stockburger, Quantitative Easing (for the street), 2014.
Vienna installation view 132
42. Paolo Cirio, Loophole For All, 2013. Installation view, House
of Electronic Arts, Basel—Switzerland 138
43. Mathieu Beauséjour, SURVIVAL VIRUS DU SURVIE, 1991–9 141
44. Valentina Karga and Pieterjan Grandry, Valentina and Pieter
invest in themselves, 2013 144
45. Valentina Karga and Pieterjan Grandry, Market for Immaterial
Value, 2015–ongoing. Instance at Sixty Eight Art Institute,
Copenhagen, 2017 146
46. Cassie Thornton, Give Me Cred!, 2013. Installation view at
Southern Exposure, San Francisco 149
46. Cassie Thornton, Give Me Cred!, 2013. Alternative credit
report template 149
47. Mark Curran, from THE MARKET, 2010–present. Bethlehem,
Trader (negotiation 1.5 years), Ethiopian Commodity Exchange
(ECX), Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, September 2012 158
figures ix
48. C.K. Wilde, Against the Common Good, 2005 161
49. Image of Le Freeport Singapore’s website, May 15, 2018 164
50. Micah Lexier, A Coin in the Corner, 2012. Installation view
at Mass MoCA 173
51. Michael Marcovici, How I Used Your Credit Card to Pay for
This Book Online, 2009 178
52. Karen Ay, Exchange, 2009 182
53. Wilfredo Prieto, One Million Dollars, 2002 185
54. Melanie Gilligan, Popular Unrest, 2010. Film still 186
55. Aaron Koblin and Takashi Kawashima, Ten Thousand Cents,
2008 192
56. Ahmet Ögüt, Anti-Debt Monolith, 2014 196
57. Thomas Gokey, $49,983: Total Amount of Money Rendered in
Exchange for a Masters of Fine Arts Degree to the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago, Pulped into Four Sheets of Paper, 2011 200
58. Occupy Museums, Debtfair, 2017. Installation view 205
58. Occupy Museums, Debtfair, 2017. Installation view at the
Whitney Biennial 205
59. Austin Houldsworth, Wealth Beyond Big Brother, 2014 208
60. Austin Houldsworth, Walden Note Money, 2014 211
61. C.K. Wilde, Saturn Eating His Children, 2006 215
62. Caroline Woolard, Exchange Cafe, 2013. Installation view at
the Musuem of Modern Art (MoMA) 220
63. Susan Stockwell, SAIL AWAY, 2013. Installation view at
Tate Modern Turbine Hall 226